December 24, 2012

Posted by ANDY aka GHoooSTSThis is a podcast full of life lessons, emotional moments, dick jokes, and stirring discussion. It’s almost the most distilled form of Community, Strategy and Technology you can imagine: CommanderCast boiled down to it’s essence. I am pleased to be joined by four of CommanderCast’s longest-running staff members, Donovan, Carlos and Brionne for another round of podcasting goodness. This week, we delve into the usual mixed bag of topics and I am reminded what an excellent team I am lucky to be surrounded by (digitally, at least) on this project. This was a particularly fun show to produce as I felt if these guys had been sitting across the table from me in the real, it would have been exactly the same. Both in real life and in my online communities, this is a great time of year to be surrounded by your truest homies, even for somebody like myself who practices nothing and recognizes no dates on the calendar save Remembrance Day.

Results for the Season Eight Contest will be coming tomorrow, so be sure to keep CommanderCast in the scope even on Christmas day. With the help of PolishTamales, Brionne and the Circle of Judgment, we’re giving one of the best holiday gifts of all–a swagnificent proxy made up with super slick original art.

03:12 to 22:31:Free-For-All Roundtable: “The EDH Community”: As far as hollow, co-opted nothing phrases go, “the XYZ Community” is quickly ascending to the same levels as “studies have shown”. What is ‘the EDH Community? Does it exist? What is a ‘Community’ anyway? This week we take a critical look at one of the terms that may be actually obstructive to broader discussion of Commander.

22:43 to 47:45:Signs and Portents for 2013: Oh my snap this year is ending and next year we can only assume people won’t mysteriously stop playing EDH for whatever reason. In fact, it’s safe to assume that the format will continue to grow and be very popular. This segment, we discuss the things we feel are most likely to build up Commander as a format, as well as some of the challenges that might hinder it going forward.

THE CHALLENGES

Low-Bandwidth Playerbase: A lot of players aren’t even aware a Rules Committee exists, much less a sizable online community devoted to this quirky format.

Inflexible Players: When there’s such a broad format played by so many different people with different goals, people who refuse to accommodate one another don’t help the situation.

Power Creep: Is it insidious or does it level the playing field for newer players?

Boredom: After playing for so long, burnout has to take it’s course. How to we keep this format flesh for the veteran players and still bring in new homies?

THE ASSETS

Players Teaching Players: The playerbase building itself up is the most important asset for any format, but even more so for one as decentralized as EDH.

Wizard’s Endorsement: When WotC jumped into the fray, Commander got a new and powerful voice to help spread the format.

Online Communities: Places like MTG: Salvation, Twitter, and Wizard’s official forums all players connect with one another.

Duel Commander: This provides an important outlet for players who are interested in Commander, but don’t want to concern themselves with the social elements of the format.

STRATEGY SEGMENTS

47:59 to 1:03:00:Making the Metagame VS Playing with Hate: When you’re looking at your metagame’s nuances, you can sort of take two routes: build a deck to exploit the weaknesses, or build hate technology into an existing deck to hose the trouble strategies. Which one do we think is stronger: building a deck and forcing people to deal with you, or playing answer cards that damage strong strategies? Depending on how dynamic the deckbuilding is in your group, the type of cards WotC is going to print, and more, the answer changes. Join us this week as we discuss which we feel is optimal in which situation.

1:03:16 to 1:45:20:Top Cards of Twenty-Doz: As 2012 comes to an end, we take a look through our sick-ass-sick decks and pick our favourite new inclusions that dropped this year. Given how powerful decks are getting now, a new card has to be pretty dope to earn a spot, so we wanted to spread the word on the cards we like best so you can enjoy them as we have. Also included: our favourite Legendary Creature this year!